Comforting Cold
by im-on-fire-bitch
Summary: Sweden never thought that an argument could create so much difficulty. What will he do when he sees one of his nearest friends disappear under the ice? Characters: Denmark and Sweden. Hint of Sweden x Denmark, but no kissing and such. The story is set during the viking age.
1. Darkness

It was weird, how cold could feel so comforting… so burning hot when it stayed there for a long time, how it could make you feel warm, when you perfectly knew you weren't. It was weird how you could feel the burning warmth slowly turn into cold, as soon as you realized you had taken your last look at the world, and what a cold place it was. It was weird how this was how you would die… trapped under the ice in a river, sinking slowly, so tired and ready for it. It was weird how you just minutes ago had fought against the streams, thought of your friends, how they would never forgive you if you died, and now just wanted to sleep; how you now just wanted to lean against the darkness, look upon the last beams of light coming through the ice, and close your eyes. How you now just wanted to fall asleep let the cold surround you…and never wake up.

Seeing the light turn into darkness over him Denmark blinked… or was it his eyes that blackened? He didn't know. All he knew was that he wasn't choking anymore. That his existence was going to end, and that he couldn't feel anything anymore. The last thing he saw before he passed out and felt the life leave him, was a single beam of light break over him. Then, He felt something, the darkness, surround him, and finally, he let go.

* * *

Sweden haled the lifeless body onto the ice and threw himself over it. He felt for the Dane's pulse, but when he found none, he felt himself get more stressed. There was no way Denmark was dead, he wasn't dead. He had to be alive. He checked for the pulse once again, but he couldn't feel any sign for a heartbeat this time either.

"No, no, no, no, no. this isn't happening, what do I do!?"

Sweden franticly tried to wake Denmark up, but Denmark didn't respond. The cold Dane was just as pale as the sow, and his hair was already starting to get frozen. Feeling his own fingers turn frozen from the ice cold water, Sweden laid Denmark over to the side, hurried to the robe he had taken off before he jumped out in the river, and covered the lifeless Dane with it.

He tried to warm Denmark up with friction, rubbing him quickly in hope. There was no way Denmark was going to die, not today.

"Denmark com'on, you are not leaving me today! I promise!"

Suddenly remembering an old technique he had used several times before, Sweden stopped rubbing. He took the unmoving body in his hands, and bore him away from the dangerous iced river. The lifeless Dane was just about as heavy as he had expected, but it didn't matter. No friend of him was going to die of cold or drowning.

As he found the snowless spot under a tree they had their belongings, he carefully lied the Dane down and undressed him and himself, covered him with all the furs and blankets he could find and pressed up close to him. He hugged him, and carefully swayed forth and back. Body warmth was said to be the best way to avoid things like death when you had fallen out in the ice cold water on the winter… but why didn't it work?

Sweden felt a single tear slide down his cold cheek. Denmark was just as cold as the Snow he had walked on earlier, just as cold as the water he had pulled him up from… and just as cold as a dead person.

"Denmark, please. You're not leaving me today… wake up, please"

Sweden lulled the lifeless Dane in his arms, feeling his eyes get wet with tears.

"Please…"

As minutes passed, he got no answer from the Dane. It had gone thirty minutes since Denmark had fallen through the ice now, and Sweden was starting to lose his hope.

"You're not going to wake up, are you…?" Sweden whispered to the Dane after a few seconds, exhausted after pulling him up from the river, and exhausted from carrying him. He felt two more tears trill down his cheeks, following the tracks of the first one.

How could he ever forgive himself? Denmark was dead because of him. Hadn't he told the stupid Dane to get away from him, he would have never tried to cross the river. He remembered the stupid argue they had had earlier. He had told Denmark to leave his side of the forest, and cross the river…just because of an argument. To make sure Denmark really was leaving he had followed him to the river and watched as the unthinkable had happened.

Sobbing, Sweden held Denmark tighter in his arms.

Denmark had stepped on a particularly thin spot on the ice, and then he just disappeared under the ice, with nothing but a scream left of him on the surface. In a hurry he had ran down to the river, forgetting everything about an argument, and tried to spot the Dane. Not before a good fifty meters down the river the ice opened again, and he had stood there, searching for a glimpse of Denmark's red robe. The stream was slower down there, and seconds later he had seen something red floating deep down under the water. He had thrown of his own robe and taken a deep breath before he jumped out, in the stinging ice cold water.

Sweden whispered a sorry once again. Exhausted and crying he held onto the lifeless body that had once been his living friend.

What would Norway do when he found out? What would he do when he told him the reason Denmark had fallen through the ice was because of him?! What would the others do when they found out Denmark had died?

Sweden hugged Denmark tighter and raked his cold fingers' trough the Dane's frozen hair. He could never forgive himself after this, never.


	2. light

Denmark groaned as he lazily opened his eyes. There was a loud banging in his head, and he could hear his own heart beats, they sent waves of pain through his head, making him groan louder in pain.

He felt something on his cheek, a hand. He tried to turn his head to see whose hand it was, but had to stop when he felt the banging pain flow back over him again. It took him a while to understand that he was leaning back on a sleeping Sweden and that the Swede was holding him in his arms, but when he realized, he thought no more of it and tried to go back to sleep.

No matter how much he tried though, he couldn't do it. He felt tired, but the only thing he managed to do was to try to remember why he was leaning against Sweden. At the same time he was starting to get really cold, where was his clothes?

He opened his eyes again, groaning when the sharp light hit his eyes. He remembered the location; he had been there earlier, for some kind of a talk. He looked a bit more around, seeing his own clothes, they lay scattered all around the place together with Sweden's… they looked frozen for some reason, like they had been… wet.

At the moment Denmark thought of it, every detail of what had happened earlier came flowing back to him. He had fallen through the ice, and down in the cold ice water. At the realization his eyes widen and he cringed at the memory. So the reason why Sweden was holding him was because he had found him? Denmark remembered fighting the streams, but getting hit with something that took the breath away from him. He remembered finding the cold comforting and he remembered glancing up at the surface and letting the darkness surround him.

Had he passed out?

Maybe it wasn't the darkness that had surrounded him? Maybe it was Sweden that had pulled him out of the river?

He sneezed because of the cold and felt the pain hit him. Why was his head hurting so much anyway?

He closed his eyes again and leaned back; burrowing himself down in the furs that Sweden had covered them with. Had Sweden forgiven him for what he had said before he left and went towards the iced river? All kinds of questions started to fill his head, but then a particularly big question came to his mind… did Sweden even know he was alive? If he had passed out, then the chance was that Sweden had tried to find his pulse.

Yeah, Sweden was a smart guy. He had to know, why would he try to keep him warm otherwise?

Denmark sneezed again and groaned in pain. It might have been that that little swimming trip of his had served him a good old fashioned cold, he told himself.

Looking at the frozen clothes Denmark wondered if Sweden had thought of them at all. Were they just going to lay there? Wasn't it better if the clothes were dry just as the furs and blankets? He felt Sweden sift a bit, and then decided that he would surprise the Swede. If he had dried their clothes then he couldn't be mad at him, right?

Quietly wrapping himself into a blanket and standing up he tucked Sweden into the remaining furs and blankets. Standing up sent numerous waves of pain through his head and of course, cold to his feet, but fighting a cold with warmth was the best way he knew of.

Denmark tiptoed towards the out burned fireplace that Sweden probably had used a couple of times before, and searched for some wood. It was weird that Sweden hadn't waked up yet because as cold as it was, Denmark wasn't exactly quiet when he tiptoed on the snow in his search for something that could be used as material for a fire.

Later when he had found material and made the fire, he hung the deep frozen clothes over it on a stick. He sat down on a log and tucked himself down in the blanket once again, sneezing every now and then.

After a while of thinking, he looked back at Sweden who was still steadily in sleep. He smiled. It was almost funny how Sweden could be so strict and bossy sometimes, but how he now had the most relaxed expression a person could have… it was almost cute… almost.

As the fire warmed him and the clothes, he couldn't stop thinking of what had happened. If Sweden hadn't found him then he could have been dead… dead and maybe never found, rotting at the bottom of the deep river. Denmark shivered at the thought, feeling uncomfortable thinking about the river.

He sighted and put some more wood onto the fire and sat back, listening to the silence.

Few moments later he heard Sweden sift and then groan. He smiled as he thought it was about time the Swede woke up. He covered himself a bit more with the blanket and looked towards the drying clothes. Touching the fabric and getting to the conclusion that the clothes were dry, he those'd Sweden's pants over to him.

He tried to be serious, not wanting to make Sweden angrier at him if he still was, but, when he turned around though, he couldn't help but to laugh. He found Sweden's surprised expression hilarious, and he found it even more hilarious when he saw Sweden's gaze go from him to the pants lying on top of him, and then back to him again.

He grinned widely and tried to stop laughing, as the laughing was making his headache worse, but he didn't quite manage to do so.

"I dried the clothes" he muttered, chuckling a bit at the end of the sentence.

"You… you're awake?"

"No, I'm sleep walking…" Denmark answered.

He snickered at his own answer as he saw Sweden's expression change from surprised to a bit more relaxed, then he went back to looking at the fire. He continued chuckling as he wondered if he was ever going to understand that guy. He sighted, at least it looked like he wasn't mad at him for that argue anymore.

As the seconds passed and Denmark managed to stop laughing he heard Sweden stand up and take on his pants. Later he saw in the corner of his eyes that he sat down on the log next to him. He saw Sweden stare at the fire, mouth slightly open like he was about to say something, but before he let him talk he interrupted him.

"You saved me from the river…" he started. He looked at Sweden who was still looking at the fire without saying anything.

"…I just wanted to say thank you for doing that"

He paused for a while, thinking. He felt like he could never really do something as great for Sweden in return, but saying thank you was at least something he could do. He smiled.

"But I must say though, you did a shitty job with drying the clothes"

Sweden smiled at the comment.

"Well, I didn't exactly think of that…" He answered. He looked at Denmark with wonder. He just couldn't believe it. He perfectly knew he wasn't dreaming, but Denmark had been dead and that he was alive now wasn't normal. He didn't complain about it, he was more relived and happy than he had ever been to know that someone wasn't dead. But did Denmark know? And if he didn't… should he know? This was all more than just a bit strange to him, but he tried his best to hide his thoughts.

He walked over to the furs and brought some of them back to the fire, handing a few of them over to Denmark who smiled at the gesture.

He sat down and stared at the fire in silence again. Maybe he had been wrong? Maybe his own brain had tricked him? He had jumped down in the cold water too; maybe the cold had made him less observant? Sweden thought about it for a while, replaying the scenario over and over in his head, but no matter how much he tried, it didn't make sense.

His thoughts were irrupted by a soft sneeze and he turned towards Denmark who was covering himself in the furs. He was obviously cold. Sweden furrowed his eyebrows, last night he hadn't been just cold, he had been as cold as the snow.

"What do you remember from last night?" he asked.

Denmark turned towards him as he thought through the memory, humming as he did. "I remember everything, I think… but I guess you mean from when I was under the ice, am I right?"

"yeah, that was what I meant"

"Well I remember that something just knocked the breath out of me when I was fighting the streams, I mean who knows what kinds of things that can be down there …" Denmark started. He made a disgusted expression as he spoke, like he was disgusted with the river... or afraid of it. He shivered, and then he continued.

"I remember that when I thought I was going to die I just found it okay and thought the cold was comforting… I was lucky that you saved me tough because I was just about passing out when I think I saw you"

'_Or dying' _Sweden thought to himself. He sighted, maybe there was things that they didn't know about themselves yet? They as living nations hadn't exactly been following the laws of nature by never aging… maybe that meant that they couldn't stay dead?

He looked at Denmark in relief.

"How do you feel?"

"My head hurts a bit… I think I'm getting a cold." Denmark chuckled as he answered. Sweden nodded in agreement. A headache could be caused by being dead too, he presumed.

"Well you do look a bit shitty" he said jokingly.

"You're such a dick Sweden, you know that" Denmark replied, playfully punching Sweden's shoulder. They both laughed a bit, and then they both stared at the fire once again.

After a few seconds, Denmark decided to break the silence again.

"Hey Sweden, I'm sorry for that argument… do you forgive me?"

Sweden looked back at Denmark. Of course he forgave him, he was just happy to see him alive! He felt like he could cry because of happiness, and it had just been a stupid argument anyway. The biggest concern of his now was if he should tell Denmark that he had been dead or not.

He looked back at the fire. Denmark was already sick, and it showed on him. Maybe it was for the better if he let him know later when it was more suited to tell him he had been dead.

He sighted as he felt like he could break out in tears at any moment out of relief, and finally pulled Denmark into a hug. The memory of the argument was replaced by the joy of knowing his friend wasn't dead anymore. No matter how bad a stupid fight could get, he would always be grateful for having Denmark alive instead of dead, and nothing could ever change that, nothing.

"Don't worry, it's already forgotten" he said quietly, smiling.

* * *

MERRY CHRISTMAS people and a happy new year!

ugh, I feel like this was so sweet it became sticky (P.S this is like the end of the story)

A tiny thingy! I just have this theory of mine that the nations of SATW can't die either (like in Hetalia, like if they do die they come back to living again, but how long it takes them depends on how bad the cause of death is and so on) but they didn't know it the first time they died that they would come back to living so everyone would be sad because they thought that their friend had died (Something around there) and that theory evolved into this fan-fiction.

So this is shit, I know, but I still love reviews and feedback so please review, please, please, please!

Love ya!


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